A newly-opened whisky bar in downtown Victoria has a cocktail on the menu that will make your head spin in more ways than one.

 

Foxtrot Tango Whisky, freshly uncorked in the Hilton DoubleTree Hotel on Douglas Street at Humboldt Street, has spiked its menu with a $400 concoction (yes, that’s a four and two zeroes) that marries Armagnac of 1934 vintage (83 year-old cognac), Barrel Aged Peychauds (whisky bitters) and Lucid Absinthe (North America’s first legally available absinthe with the key ingredient of wormwood).

 

It’s called Rat Pack Sazerac. And it’s special.

 

“Consider for a moment that this Armagnac was sitting in a French cellar while World War Two troops were fighting above with no clue of what laid beneath,” says Shawn Soole, Foxtrot Tango Whisky’s founder.

 

“I hate hearing of expensive cocktails for the sake of expensive cocktails, with gold leaf or what have you, so I try to bring together ingredients that will elevate a cocktail to something spectacular. And with the Sazerac you really have to wrap your head around that this spirit, what you’re about to drink, was made well before the war and is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

 

The Rat Pack Sazerac is part of Foxtrot Tango Whisky’s Mocambo Selection, named for a Los Angeles nightclub Frank Sinatra performed in in his pre-Rat Pack days.

 

“The Mocambo was old school, it’s where Sinatra performed in the olden days. If you showed up late into the evening it’s the kind of place where a table would miraculously appear right next to the dance floor, and that atmosphere was our inspiration,” Soole said.

 

If a $400 cocktail tickles your fancy, Soole also gives you the option to double-down by ordering all four Mocambo Selection cocktails that will run you a cool $513. And your very own photo – signed by you – on the bar’s wall. Now that’s worth its weight in gold. C